• MPs have opened public inquiry into the widespread cases of human-wildlife conflicts amid reports of unpaid claims in excess of Sh5 billion to the victims.
• The law provides that death caused by wildlife attract Sh5 million in compensation while injuries attract Sh3 million.
The national government has supported an amendment seeking to reintroduce payments for death or injury resulting from attacks by sharks, stonefish, stingrays and whales.
The Wildlife Conservation and Management (Amendment) Bill 2023 sponsored by Lamu East MP Ruweida Obo seeks to include sharks, stonefish, whales and stingrays among wildlife species in respect of which compensation as result of death and injury may be paid.
The National Assembly in 2019 amended the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act 2013 and removed sharks, whales, stonefish, stingrays and snakes from the list of wildlife species for which compensation is paid.
Currently, the law allows compensation for death or injury caused by elephant, lion, leopard, rhino, hyena, crocodiles, cheetah and buffalo.
While removing snakebites and marine creatures from the compensation schedule in 2019, the state said the move was aimed at bringing down the payout claims.
Appearing before the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Tourism and Wildlife on Thursday, Wildlife PS Silvia Museiya said the ministry had no problem with the four species that were removed from the 2013 Act being reinstated to the compensation schedule.
She, however, urged the House to increase the budgetary allocation for compensation. She also called for the formulation of a legal framework that can effectively govern the compensation process.
Museiya said the ministry’s rationale is rooted in the concern that an absence of such guidelines could potentially trigger an overwhelming influx of compensation claims.
“As a ministry, we are fully aligned in our support for this amendment bill, considering that these species had previously been accounted for in the compensation schedule," she said.
“However, we also need to determine the threshold of a compensable claim, because the idea of compensation is that someone must have taken due care and still got hurt by an animal. This is therefore, to ask Parliament to develop some regulatory framework so that we can compensate one injury and not the other.”
“We do not want to fall into the trap, where we have 100 species of compensable animals and that require some regulatory framework and those regulations we can develop together with the Kenya Wildlife Service,” Museiya said.
Maara MP Kareke Mbiuki, who chairs the committee, sought clarification from the state department wondering whether enhancement of the compensation schedule was conditional approval subject to Parliament increasing the budget.
“Madam PS, are you giving conditional approvals that we increase the compensation schedule subject to Parliament, giving the extra funding?” he posed.
“Is this subject to Parliament amending the Act further, by reducing the bereavement from five to three; if we fail to do that, will you be still comfortable because we cannot guarantee that there will be extra funding.”
MPs have opened public inquiry into the widespread cases of human-wildlife conflicts amid reports of unpaid claims in excess of Sh5 billion to the victims.
The law provides that death caused by wildlife attract Sh5 million in compensation while injuries attract Sh3 million.
Recently, PS Museiya said her ministry disbursed Sh958 million to compensate victims in the last financial year.